Following his collapse at the hands of the “Super Samoan” (watch it again here), “Skyscraper” underwent surgery, which required a titanium plate to repair. Struve immediately promised to return in “four-to-five months” and asked for a “top contender.”

That’s because the 25 year-old Dutchman has 13 fights inside the Octagon and 31 professional mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts overall. Five of his six losses have come by way of knockout or technical knockout, including his most recent finish to Hunt.

The big question now is, how will his new jaw hold up when it gets tagged by some of the heavy hitters in the 265-pound division?

And although Dana White is not ready to label Lombard a bust just yet — and rightfully so, for Okami can and has grapplefucked the best of ‘em — it’s become quite apparent that Lombard isn’t quite the eater of worlds that he was made out to be in Bellator. Then again, when you’re paired up against guys like Trevor Prangley and “Whisper” Goodman, it’s hard not to build such a reputation. In either case, it appears that Lombard has realized that at just 5’8″, perhaps the middleweight division isn’t where he belongs anymore.

That being the case, Lombard told UFC Tonight yesterday that he plans on working with renowned dietician Mike Dolce in an attempt to make the cut to 170 lbs following his upcoming nose surgery. Ariel Helwani broke the news:

I spoke to Lombard today and he’s about to work with Mike (Dolce) because he wants to get leaner. He walks around at 205 and he feels that at his height, it’s not really at his best interest to be fighting at 185. He knows the UFC wants him to go down … First thing’s first, he needs to have nose surgery. He broke his nose fighting Yushin Okami so the surgery is coming up next for him — hopefully next week. After that, he’s going to focus on that cut down to 170.

Hector Lombard has paired up with famed nutritionist Mike Dolce and will attempt to reignite his stalled mixed martial arts (MMA) career by moving to a new weight class, but only after he goes under the knife to repair a broken nose.

“I spoke to Lombard today and he’s about to work with Mike (Dolce) because he wants to get leaner,” Helwani said. “He walks around at 205 and he feels that at his height, it’s not really at his best interest to be fighting at 185. He knows the UFC wants him to go down.

“First thing’s first, he needs to have nose surgery. He broke his nose fighting Yushin Okami so the surgery is coming up next for him — hopefully next week. After that, he’s going to focus on that cut down to 170.”

Even though Lombard (32-4-1, 1 NC) doesn’t believe it’s physically possible for him to make 170-pounds, the 35-year-old will apparently give it a shot regardless.

The Cuban suffered the injury in his last fight, a unanimous decision defeat to top 185-pound contender Yushin Okami at UFC on FUEL TV 8 last month. The loss dropped the former Bellator champion to 1-2 under the UFC banner and left many questions surrounding his future.

If Gegard Mousasi seemed slow and deliberate in his unanimous decision victory over Ilir Latifi in Saturday’s UFC on Fuel 9 main event, he had a good reason.

The former Strikeforce and Dream champion revealed following the event that he suffered a knee injury during his training camp, which will require surgery.

Mousasi, who improved to 34-3-2 on his career, didn’t want to get into the specifics of the injury, but elaborated as best as he could at the post-fight press conference.

“I don’t want to talk a lot about my injury, but I can tell that this injury, I’m pretty sure 95 percent wouldn’t fight, from other fighters. You know, I stepped up, I didn’t cancel the show, you know, I don’t know, we go from here, you know.

Asked how long he’d be out of action, Mousasi said “I don’t want to say anything yet, but it’s nothing small.”

UFC president Dana White, for his part, praised Mousasi’s efforts this week, as he came to Sweden to fight Alexander Gustafsson in Gustafsson’s homeland, then accepted the fight with Latifi after Gustafsson had to withdraw due to a cut suffered in training.

“Mousasi could make it to this fight, and then have surgery after the fight, the kid comes here because he wants to fight the No. 3 ranked light heavyweight in the world,” White said.”He doesn’t want to give up this opportunity, he wants to fight. Shows up here to fight him, [Gustafsson] gets stopped on a cut … then we throw this guy who was training for a tall striker, ends up fighting a short, strong, southpaw wrestler and still accepts the fight and takes it.”

The UFC flyweight champion told MMAFighting.com that he underwent successful right shoulder surgery at a Seattle hospital on Thursday.

“It went well,” he wrote via text message. “They found three tears in the labrum and cleaned them up.”

The torn labrum injury forced Johnson, 26, to withdraw from his scheduled title defense on April 13 against John Moraga.

He has a postoperative visit scheduled for next Friday, and that is when he will find out how long he needs to rehab for. Twenty-four hours after the surgery, Johnson declined to say when he could return to action, although he said on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hourthat he was shooting for June.

“The type of surgery I had done is the labral debridement [procedure],” he wrote. “When the doctor got in there, he saw my shoulder was stable, which is the most important thing. Then I got a PRP [platelet-rich plasma] shot, which means my blood get puts in the joint which promotes natural healing in the joint where blood flow doesn’t go.”

Johnson (17-2-1) most recently defeated John Dodson at UFC on FOX 6 in January via unanimous decision.

There was no single, sudden moment in the gym when Demetrious Johnson realized he wasn’t going to be able to make his April 13 UFC flyweight title defense against John Moraga. He wasn’t on the wrong end of an errant elbow in training, nor did he feel something pop during a wrestling drill.

Rather, the torn labrum in his shoulder, which will require surgery and keep him from headlining The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale in Las Vegas, was one of those gradual things.

“Basically, we were getting ready for the training camp, and we signed the contract, and we thought everything was good to go,” Johnson said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “My shoulder was still bugging me after the Dodson fight, and I started training and I was starting to work out and pull on the rope, which is one of our conditioning [drills], and I couldn’t pull on the rope.

“And I was like ‘well, I’m not doing that exercise, time to work on something else,’” he continued. And then they noticed ‘Hey, you already did that exercise, can you go on the rope?’ and I was like, ‘Hey, I can’t, that hurts.’ And it was like, ‘Well that’s not good,’ and you know, the way it is, we go hard.”

So Johnson, who lives in the Seattle area and trains at Matt Hume’s AMC Pankration gym, went to get an MRI, which revealed the depth of his shoulder woes.

“I was like, I don’t want to get an MRI,” said Johnson, who has fought nine times since since Sept. 2010. “You never want to know what’s wrong with your body, you think you’re invincible. Sure enough, I get the MRI and it was like “Yep, you’ve got a partially torn labrum, and I was like, ‘Ahh, damnit.’ That’s when we got the news.”

Johnson will undergo surgery Thursday at Seattle’s Swedish Hospital. Since the procedure is minimally invasive, if all goes well, the champ hopes to be back in action by mid-June.

“The doctor said I’ll be in a sling for 3-4 days, after that just rehabbing,” he said. “With rehab and a full training camp, you’ll be ready to fight 100 percent in 8-12 weeks. …

“You only get one body. It just so happens, Matt told me, ‘Your fights are not as hard as your training camps. Your training camps are the hardest things you can do for a fight.’ When I’m in training camp, I push my body to where I just get sore, and when I get into a fight, it shows, I never get tired. That’s why Matt made me do the surgery. He said, you could probably do this fight against John Moraga and you could possibly win it, or you could possibly lose it. I don’t want to take that risk. I want to have a full training camp going into a championship fight.This is not a joke, we take this very seriously. That’s why we decided to get the surgery. If things go well, I’m going to push for June 15.”

The setback comes at an inopportune time for Johnson, who is expecting the birth of his first son in July and is just starting to break through to the masses. Flyweight fighters were subjected to a ridiculous amount of online criticism after Johnson’s title-winning effort over Joseph Benavidez was booed by fans Toronto on Sept. 22. But Johnson’s first title defense, a unanimous-decision win over John Dodson in the main event of UFC on FOX 6 on Jan. 26, was a ratings success.

“I saw [ratings were] up 13 percent up from UFC on FOX 5, so that made me happy,” Johnson said. “I think the UFC did a fantastic job of advertising it on Sundays during the football games. Millions of people watch football on Sunday, it was great to be a part of that. I got some of those fans to tune in to UFC on FOX 6. It was awesome, I’m glad I could be part of that. … I’m excited that me and John Dodson went out and put on a great fight and had all those viewers and they said ‘damn, those guys can fight, and they’re small,” so it was good, it just worked out. The pieces were just lined up perfectly.”

Johnson’s opponent, Moraga, trains at Arizona’s MMA Lab, home of UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson, and boasts a 13-1 record. But since he’s only fought twice in the UFC — on Facebook prelims, at that — he’s not as well known with the fans as some of his other opponents.

Johnson, though, isn’t going to underestimate his opponent due to a simple lack of notoriety.

“He’s a great competitor and he’s done great things,” Johnson said. “So far in the sport, he has two finishes in the UFC and he’s done a good job. Nobody knows who he is, I have people in my gym who train and are pretty involved in mixed martial arts and they say ‘Who’s this guy?’ and I explained to them who it is, and I just leave it at that.

“If you look at it from a business standpoint it could be a lose/lose because if I beat him, everyone’s like, ‘You’re expected to beat him,’ Johnson said. “If I lose to him, it is what it is. At the same time, a fight is a fight and that’s what i love about this flyweight division, it’s not about who’s very popular. He deserves his shot, he has two good wins in a row, I beat Joseph, John Dodson, Ian McCall, and he’s the new blood in the division.”

Even as we await the launch of the UFC’s historic experiment, there’s no rest for the weary. From possible surgery that could sideline Michael Bisping for six months, to the Diaz brothers’ punctuality once again coming under fire by UFC President Dana White, yesterday provided no shortage of kindling to keep the news cycle raging.

Add in Bellator rumbling through six fights in seven rounds, a middleweight title fight eight months in the making, and even Real Steel style robot fights (!!), and we’re already burning daylight. So without further ado, let’s get to it.

7 MUST-READ STORIES

Silva vs. Weidman in works. According to a report from Brazilian outlet Tatame, which was later confirmed by UFC President Dana White, negotiations are underway for an Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman middleweight title fight to take place on July 6, 2013. Said White: “It’s not done, but we’ll get it done.”

Newton KOs King Mo. Former Strikeforce champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, a 12-to-1 favorite, suffered a stunning knockout loss at the hands of Emmanuel Newton in the co-main event of Bellator 90. Newton uncorked a brutal spinning back fist midway through the first round to advance to season eight’s light heavyweight tournament final against Mikhail Zayats.

White defends Fitch, UFC cuts. UFC President Dana White defended Zuffa’s controversial roster cuts, stating that top-10 welterweight Jon Fitch was on the “downside” of his career and is too expensive for his current ability. White later confirmed rumors that the UFC is looking to trim down its roster by at least 100 fighters.

Bisping may need surgery. UFC middleweight contender Michael Bisping told ESPN UK that he may require neck surgery to repair a trapped nerve that’s causing his right arm to atrophy. “My muscle is wasting away because nerve signals aren’t getting through,” said Bisping, who is currently scheduled to fight Alan Belcher at UFC 159. “… My hand, I can’t even make a fist because I keep going into fight, after fight, after fight. Really what I need is six months off, but I don’t want to take six months off.”

White: Diaz brothers costing money. UFC President Dana White refuted the claims of Nick Diaz’s lawyer, stating that between Nick and his brother Nate, who White claims has no-showed “several” Road to the Octagon tapings, the two brothers have cost the UFC over $ 50,000 in “production” from missed interviews.

Velasquez inks new deal. UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez signed a new eight-fight contract with the UFC. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

This is pretty crazy. Remember that meteor that crashed into Russia last week? A portion of the explosion hit a local dojo, and as our friends at MiddleEasy pointed out, it’s pretty easy to pick out the blackbelts here.

Gray Maynard bringing the thunder. Love it. (Anyone else find it odd that half of these guys aren’t even employed by the UFC now?)

I’ll admit, at best this is only vaguely linked to fighting. But hey, why not? (NSFW: Language.)

My brilliant plan for the best wedding ever: Dueling introductions from Bruce Buffer and Lenne Hardt. Make it happen, people.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done an update on the lineal title landscape. And, with relevant match ups approaching like Bigfoot vs. Cain and Henderson vs. Melendez, I felt this would be an appropriate time to revisit these lineal titles.

For those who are not as familiar with the term, a lineal title considers a championship belt as something that is not bound by promotion, but rather a title that must be won in a fight. Another way to think about it is “The Guy Who Beat the Guy.” For example, when Hector Lombard recently left Bellator to sign with the UFC, he was still considered to be the Bellator Middleweight champion. In the Lineal Title world, he did not lose his belt until Tim Boetsch took it from him at UFC 149. After that, Philippou beat Boetsch. Therefore, Philippou is the Bellator MW champion in Lineal terms.

Below you will see that I have documented all of the Lineal Titles across all major MMA promotions over the years, many of which are now defunct. Please notice the additional notes at the bottom of each column as not every scenario flows as neatly as I would have liked for various reasons.

A quick disclaimer about my own personal lineal title philosophy (which may or may not differ from your own). I personally only like to include bouts within the particular title’s weight class. For example, if a fighter holds the MW title, but loses at LHW, he retains the MW title until someone beats him at MW. I tried to note where I have deviated from this way of thinking.

The jury is still out whether former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion B.J. Penn will ever again fight inside the Octagon, and it now looks like it’ll remain that way for the foreseeable future. Penn traveled to Utah on Monday to meet with renowned eye specialist Dr. Alan Crandall, in order to undergo surgery to repair “a damaged eye suffering from cataracts,” the 34-year-old announced on his official website.

“January of last year is when I first noticed there was a problem,” explained Penn. “I was looking at my iPhone and I really couldn’t tell what was going on. At first I thought I tore my retina, so I went to my doctor and he said, ‘I can see right away what the problem is. You have a cataract.’ The doctor told me it could be traumatic or it could be from this medicine I was taking called Prednisone, which is what I had been using over the previous few years for sinus infections.”

Crandall is well known within the boxing community for successfully completing a similar procedure on Antonio Margarito, whose cataract problem were once considered career threatening. Margarito ultimately made a full recovery, and to this day remains the highest-profile fighter to regain licensure from a state athletic commission after undergoing such a procedure.

Penn revealed that his condition existed 11 months prior to his bout against Rory MacDonald, however he shouldered the blame for his loss in full, refusing take away anything from MacDonald’s victory. Nonetheless, Penn nudged open the door for a potential return to mixed martial arts if the surgery is successful.

“The number one reason for the surgery is just for daily life,” he concluded. “I have a tough time driving at night when the lights are shining and I’d like to get that back. On the other hand, you never know what you’re going to be thinking if the surgery goes well. If I go in the gym and I’m knocking down all my sparring partners and doing awesome I would definitely think of fighting again.”

6 MUST-READ STORIES

Penn undergoes surgery. Former UFC champ B.J. Penn traveled to Salt Lake City, UT to undergo surgery with Dr. Alan Crandall to repair a cataract in his eye. After announcing his decision, Penn opened the door for a return to the cage if recovery goes well. Per his website: “If I go in the gym and I’m knocking down all my sparring partners and doing awesome I would definitely think of fighting again.”

Rebney, Alvarez talk lawsuit. Eddie Alvarez phoned into The MMA Hour during Bjorn Rebney’s segment, hoping to speak with the Bellator CEO about the pair’s ongoing lawsuit. Rebney ultimately refused, however a fuming Alvarez later aired his thoughts on Rebney and the perceived “lies” Bellator’s lawyers were perpetuating with their litigation.

Report: UFC cards expanding. UFC fight cards, which typically span 11 fights, will regularly begin capping off at 12 or 13 fights in order to accommodate the needs of a roster rife with new talent from Strikeforce, according to a report from CagePotato.

Maia’s manager wants Saffiedine. With each of the top UFC 170-pound contenders already booked, Demian Maia’s manager, Eduardo Alonso, is angling for a bout against Strikeforce welterweight champion Tarec Saffiedine next for his client, according to a report from Brazilian outlet Tatame.

Dana White has had a successful surgery for Meniere’s disease. The doctors have literally detached his ear and reattached it. As White warns in the beginning of the Vlog, if you are easy sickened by blood (how are you an MMA fan?) than this is not the video for you. If you watched Tito’s spinal surgery, you …

Dana White is already on the road to recovery a day after undergoing extensive ear surgery.

The UFC president told MMAFighting.com Wednesday that his ear surgery went “great” and he was already flying home to Las Vegas. White went under the knife at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

White has been battling Ménière’s disease for over a year. According to MayoClinic.com, Ménière’s disease “is a disorder of the inner ear that causes spontaneous episodes of vertigo — a sensation of a spinning motion — along with fluctuating hearing loss, ringing in the ear, and sometimes a feeling of fullness or pressure in your ear.”

White wrote via text message that he was “sore but that will go away in a few days” following the surgery. He added that he will not be flying to Brazil for UFC on FX 7 this weekend. He hopes the surgery will cure the excruciating pain he has felt as of late.

The 43-year-old White started to feel the effects of the disease at the end of 2011, and it later forced him to miss his first UFC event in 11 years when the disease prevented him from flying to Fairfax, Va., for UFC on FUEL TV 3 in May.

“This is a different procedure,” he said in October of the surgery. “They’re going to try where they go in and cut the back of my ear open and they go in through there. They insert a tube, and it’s supposed to give me a 70 percent chance of not having an attack.”